Boy Meets Geek by Arielle Archer Read Free Book Online

me both respect him more and want him more. It was ridiculous to fall for a guy over something silly like that, but there it was. I was an intellectual woman first and foremost, and he was definitely able to stimulate my brain in a way most guys had never been able to. That intrigued me. That turned me on if I was being perfectly honest.
    “Fine, I’ll send you something I worked up for class,” I said.
    “No, I want your novel,” he said.
    I blinked. “How did you know about that?”
    “You said you’re in a creative writing program and you just got in a fight about liking genre fiction. I know you have a novel you’ve been working on. I want to see it.”
    Now this really was asking too much! He was absolutely right, but I’d never share that with anyone. I even turned the screen away when Samantha was in the room. Not that I’d actually worked on the thing in a while because I was so busy with the creative writing program and all the creative writing I’d been doing for the game. But still. Sharing something like that was so personal.
    “Come on…” he said.
    I sighed. “Fine. I’ll send you the first few chapters, but that’s it!”
    “Glad to hear it.”
    He was so cocky. So arrogant. So sure he’d get his way! I wondered what kind of man he was in the real world, outside of the videogame, that he had that calm and confident demeanor. That he just assumed everyone was going to do what he asked.
    I alt tabbed out of the game and opened up my email client. I had my own Elassa mail account. It was a whole giant social network for fans of the series. I typed in his email and attached the file, and as I did I got a good look at his profile picture. Not everybody bothered with the picture, but he had one. And I found myself staring, transfixed.
    The character creator for the game meant you could pretty much write your own ticket in terms of looks. Most people chose a character who was muscular or slim in all the right places. Basically the perfect figure and the ultimate in wish fulfillment. What I’m trying to say is you didn’t see a lot of chubby characters walking around Tales of Elassa unless it was somebody who was doing it to make a point for a particular brand of role-playing.
    Only as I looked at the picture attached to his profile, I wondered if he realized I was going to be able to see that picture when he gave me his email, I realized that in this case at least, assuming this was actually him and this wasn’t an elaborate catfishing expedition, there wasn’t much difference between the man behind the computer and the handsome character in game.
    He wore a huge pair of sunglasses that obscured most of his face, but there was no obscuring his strong jaw line. The picture was also taken at a slightly odd angle that covered up some of his face, but I could see shaggy Brown hair that looked unkempt but was so sexy. And the rest of him. Broad shoulders and what looked like a well muscled frame under a tight fitting T-shirt that left no doubt he spent time in the gym. He looked like he was maybe anywhere from five to ten years older than me and he looked absolutely delicious.
    Not for the first time since I started interacting with this man I found myself staring at the screen while my brain short circuited. What the hell was going on here? Could that really be him? That couldn’t possibly be him! There was no way that a man who looked that good, a man this compelling and that nice, a man who seemed to know what I was thinking before I even thought it myself, could be that gorgeous!
    And it instantly made me self-conscious as well. If I sent him an attachment through my account at Elassa.com then he’d see my profile picture. My mess of brown hair. A face that was definitely not anything to write home about. And I had a petite frame that definitely didn’t bear much resemblance to my buxom character in game.
    Not to mention in my picture I was staring into the camera with a goofy expression that